57
and moved to Lindsborg, Kansas, with him, where Carl had been called
to serve as the pastor.
Here the partnership between Alma and Carl flourished for the next
quarter-century. Carl served as the pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church
and as the founder and president of Bethany College. He traveled widely,
including trips to Sweden; he wrote books, became a national leader
within the Augustana Synod, spoke at an endless number of events, and
became such a well-known figures in Swedish America that he was often
called “The Colossus of the Plains.”
Alma began playing her significant roles in Lindsborg as well. She
used her great musical talents and was appointed as the organist at
Bethany Lutheran Church and the director of the church choir. Perhaps
her longest-lasting legacy came when, beginning in late 1881, she began
the long process of recruiting singers, training voices, and rehearsing for
the production of Handel’s Messiah. Alma continued her involvement
with the annual Messiah concerts in Lindsborg for the rest of her life, and
the Messiah continues to be performed annually in Lindsborg to this day.
After Carl’s untimely death in 1904, “Mrs. Dr. Swensson” continued
to live in Lindsborg and to play important roles with Bethany Lutheran
Church, the Bethany Oratorio Society, and the Augustana Synod. Alma
was a founder, leader, and officer in the Augustana Women’s Missionary
Society, for example, and after Carl’s death she edited that organization’s
national publication, Missions-Tidning. She continued in these roles, as
well as the more traditional roles of mother, homemaker, hostess, and
more, until her death in 1939.
Author Karen Humphrey has done an excellent job in bringing
Alma’s story to life. She provides rich contexts for various stages of
Alma’s life, but is careful not to over-reach her sources and put words
in Alma’s mouth that Alma did not say, or thoughts that Alma may not
have had. She paints a rich story of a very significant Swedish American.
KEVIN PROESCHOLDT
EDITOR, SAHQ
Samuelsson, Marcus. Yes, Chef. New York: Random House, 2012. 319
pages. ISBN 978-0-385-34260-5.
Marcus Samuelsson’s memoir, Yes, Chef, is an intensely interesting,
58
rags-to-riches account, the rags being his birth in poverty in Ethiopia.
The riches came years later with his amazing success as a renowned chef
in New York City. He is also remarkably candid about the bumps along
this arduous journey.
When he was three years old and his sister was five, his Ethiopian
mother, who was ill with tuberculosis, walked seventy-five miles with
her sick children to an Addis Ababa hospital. She died there in 1972,
and a kind hospital worker cared for the children until they were adopted
by a family in Sweden.
Marcus and Linda grew up in the loving family of Anne Marie and
Lennart Samuelsson in a village near Gothenburg. The Samuelssons
modeled strong values that stayed with Marcus in his later career. As a
child he enjoyed playing soccer, aiming to play professionally. But he
also loved spending time at his grandmother Helga’s home, where he
watched her cook great Saturday evening dinners for their family. They
spent happy summers on the island of Smögen on the west coast of
Sweden, where fishing and cooking tasty meals with their catch fasci-nated
young Marcus.
Growing older, he realized that his great passion was cooking. He
attended a culinary school and worked in Gothenburg restaurants, where
he quickly learned to say “Yes, chef” whenever the chef spoke to him.
This was the first step in an exhausting and sometimes cut-throat path
to becoming a celebrated chef. He trained on cruise ships and with
Europe’s best chefs in some of the most demanding restaurants in
Switzerland and France, always remembering “Yes, chef.”
Moving to New York City, his culinary talent brought him to
high-end restaurants, including Aquavit, with opportunities to create
menus blending flavors from many cultures, including Swedish and
Ethiopian. His fame grew, bringing top honors, a White House state
dinner, television appearances, James Beard awards, and authorship of
several cookbooks. Sometimes he trusted people who let him down; there
were economic setbacks and failures, such as the closing of Aquavit in
Minneapolis. When he decided to leave his Aquavit partnership and
open the Red Rooster in Harlem, he unhappily learned that because of
a contract legality he had to empty his savings and “buy back” his name.
He had fathered a child while in Austria, and when the mother
informed him, she told him he could walk away. He did and later
regretted it. Meanwhile his own mother paid his child support from a
bank account he set up, and she sent the girl loving letters and gifts. He
59
later determined to make things right. It wasn’t easy, but he humbly
sought forgiveness, resulting in reconciliation with his daughter, Zoe,
and her mother.
He married Ethiopian-born Maya, a New York model, in 2009 in
Ethiopia. Marcus’s mother Anne Marie attended the church ceremony
along with his birth father, Tsegie, whom his sister had tracked down in
genealogy research¾a joyful extended family. He got to know his
Ethiopian stepsisters and brothers and began a quest to help them obtain
education and better opportunities.
The Red Rooster restaurant is part of a renaissance in Harlem,
attracting clientele from all walks of life. Marcus writes, “I’m documenting
Harlem’s history at the Rooster, preserving the fine history of African
American cuisine while presenting it through my own unique Swedish-
Ethiopian lens. I want to capture the imagination of New York’s dining
communities, inspire a new generation of chefs, and I aspire, always, to
make food that makes a difference.”
As a relatively recent Swedish immigrant, Marcus Samuelsson reflects
the global reach of our world today while adding a multicultural dimension
to our country, just as our forebears did over the past 150 years.
ELOISE NELSON
BOARD MEMBER, SAHS
Roseman, Curtis C. Building the American Dream: A Swedish Carpenter,
Contractor, and Family in Moline, Illinois. Moline: Heritage Documentaries,
2012. Paper, photos, graphs, maps, bibliography, index, 241 pp. ISBN
978-0-615-56990-1.
This book tells the story of Swedish immigrant Gustaf Adolf Johnson,
who left Sweden in 1899 and settled in Moline, a city with a significant
Swedish immigrant population. There he lived much of the rest of his
life, marrying Swedish immigrant Selma Anna Sofia Carlson there in
1908, raising a family, and building a successful carpentry and contractor
career.
This book is primarily a family history of this Swedish immigrant
family, though it may also be of interest to those interested in Moline
history or the history of Swedish America. Readers learn about the
personal lives and family developments of the Johnson family through
the years, since the author alternates every other chapter between

Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.

All rights held by the Swedish-American Historical Society. No part of this publication, except in the case of brief quotations, may be reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the editor and, where appropriate, the original author(s).

57
and moved to Lindsborg, Kansas, with him, where Carl had been called
to serve as the pastor.
Here the partnership between Alma and Carl flourished for the next
quarter-century. Carl served as the pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church
and as the founder and president of Bethany College. He traveled widely,
including trips to Sweden; he wrote books, became a national leader
within the Augustana Synod, spoke at an endless number of events, and
became such a well-known figures in Swedish America that he was often
called “The Colossus of the Plains.”
Alma began playing her significant roles in Lindsborg as well. She
used her great musical talents and was appointed as the organist at
Bethany Lutheran Church and the director of the church choir. Perhaps
her longest-lasting legacy came when, beginning in late 1881, she began
the long process of recruiting singers, training voices, and rehearsing for
the production of Handel’s Messiah. Alma continued her involvement
with the annual Messiah concerts in Lindsborg for the rest of her life, and
the Messiah continues to be performed annually in Lindsborg to this day.
After Carl’s untimely death in 1904, “Mrs. Dr. Swensson” continued
to live in Lindsborg and to play important roles with Bethany Lutheran
Church, the Bethany Oratorio Society, and the Augustana Synod. Alma
was a founder, leader, and officer in the Augustana Women’s Missionary
Society, for example, and after Carl’s death she edited that organization’s
national publication, Missions-Tidning. She continued in these roles, as
well as the more traditional roles of mother, homemaker, hostess, and
more, until her death in 1939.
Author Karen Humphrey has done an excellent job in bringing
Alma’s story to life. She provides rich contexts for various stages of
Alma’s life, but is careful not to over-reach her sources and put words
in Alma’s mouth that Alma did not say, or thoughts that Alma may not
have had. She paints a rich story of a very significant Swedish American.
KEVIN PROESCHOLDT
EDITOR, SAHQ
Samuelsson, Marcus. Yes, Chef. New York: Random House, 2012. 319
pages. ISBN 978-0-385-34260-5.
Marcus Samuelsson’s memoir, Yes, Chef, is an intensely interesting,
58
rags-to-riches account, the rags being his birth in poverty in Ethiopia.
The riches came years later with his amazing success as a renowned chef
in New York City. He is also remarkably candid about the bumps along
this arduous journey.
When he was three years old and his sister was five, his Ethiopian
mother, who was ill with tuberculosis, walked seventy-five miles with
her sick children to an Addis Ababa hospital. She died there in 1972,
and a kind hospital worker cared for the children until they were adopted
by a family in Sweden.
Marcus and Linda grew up in the loving family of Anne Marie and
Lennart Samuelsson in a village near Gothenburg. The Samuelssons
modeled strong values that stayed with Marcus in his later career. As a
child he enjoyed playing soccer, aiming to play professionally. But he
also loved spending time at his grandmother Helga’s home, where he
watched her cook great Saturday evening dinners for their family. They
spent happy summers on the island of Smögen on the west coast of
Sweden, where fishing and cooking tasty meals with their catch fasci-nated
young Marcus.
Growing older, he realized that his great passion was cooking. He
attended a culinary school and worked in Gothenburg restaurants, where
he quickly learned to say “Yes, chef” whenever the chef spoke to him.
This was the first step in an exhausting and sometimes cut-throat path
to becoming a celebrated chef. He trained on cruise ships and with
Europe’s best chefs in some of the most demanding restaurants in
Switzerland and France, always remembering “Yes, chef.”
Moving to New York City, his culinary talent brought him to
high-end restaurants, including Aquavit, with opportunities to create
menus blending flavors from many cultures, including Swedish and
Ethiopian. His fame grew, bringing top honors, a White House state
dinner, television appearances, James Beard awards, and authorship of
several cookbooks. Sometimes he trusted people who let him down; there
were economic setbacks and failures, such as the closing of Aquavit in
Minneapolis. When he decided to leave his Aquavit partnership and
open the Red Rooster in Harlem, he unhappily learned that because of
a contract legality he had to empty his savings and “buy back” his name.
He had fathered a child while in Austria, and when the mother
informed him, she told him he could walk away. He did and later
regretted it. Meanwhile his own mother paid his child support from a
bank account he set up, and she sent the girl loving letters and gifts. He
59
later determined to make things right. It wasn’t easy, but he humbly
sought forgiveness, resulting in reconciliation with his daughter, Zoe,
and her mother.
He married Ethiopian-born Maya, a New York model, in 2009 in
Ethiopia. Marcus’s mother Anne Marie attended the church ceremony
along with his birth father, Tsegie, whom his sister had tracked down in
genealogy research¾a joyful extended family. He got to know his
Ethiopian stepsisters and brothers and began a quest to help them obtain
education and better opportunities.
The Red Rooster restaurant is part of a renaissance in Harlem,
attracting clientele from all walks of life. Marcus writes, “I’m documenting
Harlem’s history at the Rooster, preserving the fine history of African
American cuisine while presenting it through my own unique Swedish-
Ethiopian lens. I want to capture the imagination of New York’s dining
communities, inspire a new generation of chefs, and I aspire, always, to
make food that makes a difference.”
As a relatively recent Swedish immigrant, Marcus Samuelsson reflects
the global reach of our world today while adding a multicultural dimension
to our country, just as our forebears did over the past 150 years.
ELOISE NELSON
BOARD MEMBER, SAHS
Roseman, Curtis C. Building the American Dream: A Swedish Carpenter,
Contractor, and Family in Moline, Illinois. Moline: Heritage Documentaries,
2012. Paper, photos, graphs, maps, bibliography, index, 241 pp. ISBN
978-0-615-56990-1.
This book tells the story of Swedish immigrant Gustaf Adolf Johnson,
who left Sweden in 1899 and settled in Moline, a city with a significant
Swedish immigrant population. There he lived much of the rest of his
life, marrying Swedish immigrant Selma Anna Sofia Carlson there in
1908, raising a family, and building a successful carpentry and contractor
career.
This book is primarily a family history of this Swedish immigrant
family, though it may also be of interest to those interested in Moline
history or the history of Swedish America. Readers learn about the
personal lives and family developments of the Johnson family through
the years, since the author alternates every other chapter between